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Using UV resin with multi-part molds

This is an advance level type thing but I made it into a slow-and-steady type thing.

You will need:
- UV resin (I use it because it is fast-curing--in this tutorial, I used soft type UV resin)
- your mold
- A UV lamp (I use one for nail but there are smaller, more portable ones available these days) but if you want to use sunlight, it's about half an hour to an hour of curing in sunlight for every minute under the UV lamp
- a shallow tray plus some small solid items to use as book-end-type clamps
- a pair of small nail scissors

Safety: Wear gloves and do not inhale UV resin. Do not stare directly at UV lamp.

The mold I'm using is by floree--it is a three-dimensional coffee cup mold and I am using it as items with handles are usually the most tricky. This type of mold is made of oil-bleed silicon rubber--it feels oily to touch as that is the release agent for easing the release of molded resin items.

First fill in the handles on both side of the mold with UV resin as that's the most finicky bit. I use a toothpick to make sure that the UV resin gets in the mold properly.

If you are a bit uncertain about the outcome, pop the mold into the UV lamp first to solidify the handles first.

Next, place the two bottom halves of the mold together. As the mold is an irregular shape and cannot be held together easily with rubber bands, I placed it in a plastic tray and wedged the two halves together with two small toothpick boxes.

Add in some UV resin to cover the base of the mold.

The layer of resin is cured under the UV lamp to form a base and ensure that any more resin does not leak out. (This is why I call it the slow and steady way--you can build up the cup in layers).

Add more UV resin to fill the mold and place the top part of the mold in if you are making empty cups. This is the tricky bit as there is always the risk of adding too much or too little resin. I generally add the resin in bit by bit until the top part of the mold can fit and no bubbles are seen.

As you can see, the result is far from perfect after unmolding. I usually use a small pair of nail scissors to trim off the excess bits of resin.